Splice

Unfortunately I’ve already read a fair number of reviews of this movie, and as such my brain is all full of things that other people said about it. The usual massive and ingenious originality that I’m sure all you excited readers are hoping for probably isn’t going to be here this time. I’ll do my best though.

So Splice is about a couple so-called nerds who are really good at genetic engineering. They’re working on a weird slug-mole thing that excretes a possibly marketable material, and their backers like this. However, what they’re really excited about is putting some human DNA into the mix; this would possibly make their research more beneficial to humanity. Understandably, the higher-ups are not too keen on this idea. Messing with human genetic material is often frowned upon by pretty much everybody. Nevertheless, the female half of the couple is blinded by the motherly need to create and persuades her lover to help her make a weirdo baby.

The product of this abominable act is Dren, who goes from a stabby seed-pod thing to a chicken-rat, and then starts looking a bit more human aside from three-fingered hands and backwards legs. She also develops some other neat features later on. She doesn’t say words much at all, instead favoring rather bird-like screeches and twitters. This doesn’t keep her from being the object of affection of her mother/creator, who at first seems to be trying to raise her as a human daughter. This motherly treatment becomes a major theme of the movie.

I forgot to specify that Dren grows really fast. She goes from that seed-pod thing to apparent maturity in what looks like a couple weeks. This maturity brings what you might expect from an R-rated sci-fi movie made by nerds. Can’t say I mind. Then everything goes nuts.

So the previews of course market the film as a horror flick. There are some horror bits, especially around the end, but as a whole it’s more of a relationship movie with a healthy discussion of moral dilemmas. If you don’t mind a bit of blood, nudity, and scientific nerdery, then you should see this movie. It’s mostly quite good.